Ascension
by voper45
Summary: An ancient forerunner station brings the Spirit of Fire to a galaxy under the iron fist of a galactic empire. Can they help the rebellion while surviving the covenant onslaught, or will a greater threat lurking in the darkness destroy them all. (Three way crossover, Halo/Star Wars/Mass Effect) (First fan-fic)
1. Chapter 1 -prologue

**Hi, this is my first fan-fic, so I hope you enjoy.**

**I don't own Halo or Starwars. **

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16 April, 2551-

The Spirit of Fire and her crew had only been in UNSC space for less than two months, and its already been relocated to Reach and had a new slip-space drive installed. Now Captain James Gregory Cutter sat in his office reading over the files, given to him for his new mission, one last time before he went to brief the crew.

After finishing looking over everyone once more, Captain Cutter stood up too look out at the fleet assembling around his ship. As far as he could see it should be an easy assignment, investigate a forerunner structure that was spotted on long range scanners, and was located on the galactic rim. Before him multiple ships where slowly moving into position to prepare for the jump to slip-space. High Command wasn't taking any chances it seemed as he had been assigned a total of nine other ships for this mission. There were four frigates, the UNSC Savannah, UNSC Gettysburg, UNSC Allegiance, and the UNSC Euphrates. Forming up near them where the destroyers, UNSC Herodotus and UNSC Iroquois, with the cruisers UNSC Dawn Under Heaven and UNSC Leviathan slightly ahead. Sitting in the middle of the formation was the fleet's main carrier, the UNSC Musashi. As the Spirit of Fire left the orbital docks that had been its home for the past week or two, and began to make its way into formation for the jump, Cutter turned and began to make his way to the briefing room.

21 April, 2551-

It had been five days since they jumped to slip-space, when Captain Cutter was finally called to the bridge. "One minute until arrival" an officer informed him upon his arrival to the bridge. Cutter watched out the window as the rift between planes formed, and his fleet of ships exited slip-space. First thing he noticed was a large forerunner space station. It was of the normal gray silver color scheme, with blue lights here and there. The station had a rounded area in the middle, with two prongs sticking upward, and a cone sticking out of the bottom.

Cutter was broken out of his thoughts of what the station did, as several officers began to report their findings. "Sir, communications with the other ships is being scrambled; it seems the station is jamming transmissions." "I'm picking up a strange energy field surrounding the station." One officer reported, "I've got positive sighting of a covenant super carrier, and several corvettes near the station, they do not appear to realize we are here."

Cutter decided that the last report was the most important. "How many ships are there?" "Unknown, the jamming is affecting radar too, but I can see the super carrier and at least three cruisers on what appears to be a patrol path." The officer responded. Cutter turned to the tactical map in the center of the bridge, in attempts to see what was going on, but quickly dismissed the idea as the hologram fizzled and went static every several seconds. In fact he noticed Serina was in a similar position. "Are you ok Serina?" He asked. "Ye..es it... field... affecting me." She barely got out. Still concerned, he moved on asking, "Are you sure they haven't spotted us yet?" "It appears so; they have yet to move to engage, seems they're being jammed as badly as we are." Cutter thought over his choices here. He could retreat to Reach again, and call it a failure, use the jammers to his advantage and hit the super carrier with the element of surprise, and hope to destroy it, or try picking off some of the patrols, while sending a message back to Reach for backup.

"Contact the rest of the fleet and tell them to form up, we're going to hit that 'patrol' before they know we're here. Also try to send word back to High Command that things got rough over here." The officer answered with a quick "Yes sir!" before the entire bridge went to work. Outside the view point the fleet was getting into formation. The ships unable to receive the message quickly figured out what was going on. "Begin moving on those cruisers, and charge the MACs" Cutter said as the fleet grouped up.

After moving forward for about two minutes in silence, and officer finally spoke up, "Entering energy field in 3...2...1" Upon this the bridge's lights dimmed for several seconds before returning to normal, but Serina winked out on the holo-terminal. "Status report!" Cutter responded. "It appears the field had created a power flux for several seconds. Most systems are running fine now, though the reactors are having some power loss. Serina has gone into a dormant state. All contact with the rest of the fleet is gone." Cutter didn't like the loss of communication, but there were more pressing issues to attend to as another officer got his attention, "Covenant patrol group has spotted us. It seems they are running away. The rest of the Covenant fleet is holding position." "Do we have a firing solution? Don't let them get away, bring main batteries to bear. I want a firing solution on those ships, and bring the main batteries to bear. Don't let them escape." Cutter quickly responded. He watched as the bridge went into a flurry of movement. "Sir, firing solution is set, lead cruiser targeted." Came the officer's response. With that Cutter gave the order, "Fire!"

The darkness of space was lit up for several seconds as the Spirit of Fire's MAC round impacted the cruiser, turning it into a large blue fireball, and the other two veered to go around.

"That was too easy..." Cutter muttered. He knew there should have been at least some form of resistance from the shields, but it was as if they weren't active. Now that he thought about it, the cruisers engines kept flickering on and off. Something wasn't right here. Even now the cruisers where still running instead of returning fire. As he mauled over what was going on, two more MAC rounds flew past, destroying the other two cruisers. Dual blue fireballs lit up the area, before dimming into nothingness, but a blue glow remained.

"Sir, the Forerunner station is powering up!" Cutter was shaken from his thoughts, surveying the area, he could see the station's two prongs lighting up, casting a blue glow on the ships. Above the prongs the beginnings of a slip-space rupture could be seen. "Has that super carrier spotted us yet?" asked Cutter. One of the deck officers said "Most likely, but it appears to be retreating toward the structure. I think it's going to jump." Cutter thought it over for a few seconds. The super carrier's engines were acting up just like the cruisers'. If they were lucky, the shields were dead as well. "Get us in firing range of the carrier, and prepare to fire the MACs." Around the bridge several officers gave him questioning looks, but responded with "Yes sir", trusting the captain's orders.

As the black-hole like rupture to slip-space opened, the Covenant fleet began to form up near it, in attempt to retreat from the UNSC ships quickly approaching. Ever since the ships entered the field surrounding this station, all plasma based tech went offline, their reactors barely producing enough charge to keep the life-supports and engines running. Being both shield-less and weaponless meant these UNSC ships could easily destroy the super carrier and its escorts. As the rupture reached 50% stability, and the ships got closer, blue lightning began to fly between the prongs and the ships.

"What is going on over there?" Cutter asked to no one in particular upon seeing the lighting beginning to fly between the super carrier and the station. His only response was the unanimous "Not sure" that swept through the bridge. Uncomfortable with the lack of inform, Cutter asked, "Are we in range yet?" "MACs are in range, but at this range, we might hit the station instead. We still got a while for everything else. "This was the weapon's officer's response. Cutter took a moment to weigh his options. He could fire the MACs now, and risk damaging the station, or wait several more minutes to fire everything, but be at risk of return fire. His mind was made up as the lightning intensified, and the super carrier began to turn to face the rupture. "Fire the main batteries."

The main batteries opened fire, yellow tracer rounds marking the path of fire. A corvette caught in the chaos was ripped to shreds, the reactor blowing as several rounds punched into it. The lone fireball was soon joined by several more as the rest of the fleet opened fire. The super carrier finished aligning itself with the rupture, as the lightning grabbed hold of it, before the carrier was thrown through the rupture, with the rest of the fleet preparing to follow it.

"Sir, the Covies are jumping!" cried out an officer. As Cutter watched, two more cruisers jumped. He reiterated his order; "Fire the MAC and prepare to follow." This fleet's shields were offline, and he was going to take advantage of it. He would not let them escape. As five more ships jumped, leaving only three cruisers and a corvette, he felt the deck of the bridge shutter as a MAC round flew out to meet them. The round sped out, but missed the corvette by a few feet, instead hitting the one prong of the station. Surprisingly the structure survived the impact, though the force was enough to cause the whole station to spin to the side. Seconds later, the remaining covenant ships jumped through.

"Captain, what are our orders?" Not wanting to let them escape, Cutter simply said, "Follow them through." Quickly approaching the rupture, the UNSC ships prepared themselves for the jump. As the fleet got close to the rupture, the same blue lightning connected with the ships, before flinging them threw. The rupture closed behind the last ship, while the lightning died out, and the station slowly began to rotate itself back in place.

Cutter watched as he entered the relay, the lightning creating a blue aura around the Spirit of Fire. After the ship was flung though, problems began. Immediately the ship shuttered and groaned from the intense speeds it was flung. Soon after the lights flickered out on the bridge. Thinking quickly, in attempt to keep his ship from falling apart, Cutter called to his comms officer, "Are we out of jammer range?" He got the reply of a "Yes". "Good, tell the fleet to drop out of slip-space!"

Not even a minute after telling the comms officer, a rupture began to form in front of his ship. As his ship slid through, the blue lightning appeared once more to slow the ship down. The sudden stop threw the crew around on the bridge. Getting back up, Cutter took a moment to get his bearings. The entire fleet made it, though the UNSC Euphrates appears to be damaged. The Spirit of Fire was experiencing mild power failures. No doubt the others were too. Looking out of the forward view-port, he noticed they were in orbit of a green world with several oceans. Just ahead where the three Covenant cruisers and the corvette, with the corvette being in a similar position as the Euphrates. Glancing beside him he could see Serina coming back to on the holo-terminal. "What did I miss?" she asked upon reactivating. "A lot. Now does anyone have any idea where we are?" Cutter replied.

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**Well there is the prologue. hope it was good, please review. I hope to have the next chapter up by next Friday.**


	2. Chapter 2 -Battle of Felucia

**Hey there, managed to get this chapter together alittle early for you guys, hope you enjoy.**

**Also, yes Mass Effect is the third series in the crossover, but they won't begin to show up until a few more chapters in.**

**I don't own Halo, or Starwars. If I did, this would be a game, not a fan-fic**

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**Act 1: Meetings**

**2 ABY:**

What should of been an average day for Commander Zeroff quickly turned sour. He had been tasked with running this base and keep the locals under control. Since his deployment 3 months ago, everything had gone fine. Now today, everything changed. He had no sooner finished lunch, when his presence was requested in the control room. Upon entering he found the place in a state of chaos. Attempting to get his crew back under control, he began to shout out commands and questions. "Whats the issue? Bring up status reports on recon units three and five. Have the supplies arrived yet?" Upon hearing their commander in the room, the noise died down, as an officer responded, "We detected an unknown energy discharge in sector A-7 and K-2. Admiral Brandon has already taken two star destroyers to investigate." Curious of this development Zeroff asked, "Any ideas as to what it could be?" "No, the disperse is interfering with radar, and its in the wrong areas to be solar flare related... wait, we're picking something up now. Putting it up now. "The officer responded. Zeroff looked to the holographic display in the center of the room. The display showed Felucia in the center, and Brandon's Star Destroyers slowly moving away. These didn't concern him though. What did, was the four-teen spacecraft that where sitting in orbit that shouldn't be there. "What are these vessels?" "Unknown sir. They are sitting in the areas of the energy discharges." the officer said._ Perhaps the energy discharge was a hyperspace jump cloak_, Zeroff thought. He watched as the Star Destroyers slowly approached the more organic looking ships. Looking at the charts he could see their systems coming online, while the more box-like ships where still emitting no power, and appeared to be dead in the water.

Brandon stood on the bridge of his Star Destroyer as it approached the ships that mysteriously appeared in orbit following an unknown energy burst. Ahead of him he could see the ships, there were four of them total, three where identical and obviously the same ship class, and were larger than the fourth with each one having three bulbous sections, and four prongs sticking out of the bottom of one of the bulbs. The smaller craft looked somewhat similar to the others, but had an external ring structure attached to it._ Are these some sort of new Rebel spacecraft?_ The admiral started to wonder but quickly dismissed it for now. He called for the comms officer, "Get a link opened to those crafts." Five seconds later the holo projector activated. Before him stood a being he was not familiar with. It was taller than he was, and wore what appeared to be combat armor. As far as he could tell they were reptilian in nature, and had a mouth with four mandibles. The being had a look of wonder, before it turned to surprise, and finally settled on disgust. Getting over the slight shock of meeting an unknown race, he prepared to give his standard speech to unwelcomed guests. "You are trespassing on Imp-" he began, only to be interrupted by the being, "Foolish humans,you think that these Forerunner ships, it will save you? Forerunner tech, or not, we shall destroy you." With that the projector closed, the line being cut. Brandon shot a glance to the comms officer, only to see he was just as confused. "Sir, I'm picking up an energy buildup on those ships! I think they're preparing to fire." Brandon looked to the officer that said it, before looking back out the window. The smaller ship had broken from the group and began to move toward the surface of Felucia. "Prepare to return fire!" the admiral shouted to his crew, as multiple glowing blue bolts launched from the ships in-front of him.

Sitting in his chair onboard the _Spirit of Fire_, captain Cutter was trying to form a plan. After making it out of the slip-space rupture relativity unharmed, though some crew had cuts and bruises from the ride and the Euphrates had reactor problems, he ordered all ships to power down unessential systems to try and stay hidden from the Covenant. There where other ships that where currently approaching the Covenant ships. Serina had picked them up on her initial scan of the system, but the ships matched nothing in the databases. While there where only two of them that where approaching the covenant warships, atleast three more where planet side. The ships where triangular in shape, with a raised 'T' shaped tower near the engines. If he had to guess, he'd bet the bridge was in the tower. Part of him said it was Forerunner, but he doubted the Forerunners would have such an easily hit bridge. Perhaps it's a new covenant ship? He wondered. No, it doesn't match their color scheme, or the organic flow of their ships. Could it be a brand new race? Whoever these ships where, his wonder could wait an officer called out getting his attention, "Captain Cutter, Covenant cruisers have powered up and engaged the unknown ships." Cutter stood up and walked to the front of the bridge to see what was happening.

The space above Felucia lit up as the star destroyers fired their turbo-laser batteries at the covenant cruisers. To the annoyance of Brandon, the shields of the cruisers simply shrugged of the shots as they fired again. He watched as his shielding effortlessly defended the ship from the barrage. He had watched this for the past six minutes. His ships would fire, they returned. Neither side was getting anywhere. Any average Rebel ship would've been a debris field by now, but these ships had shields that rivaled his Star Destroyer's. Hoping to get this over with, he called out across the bridge, "Inform the pilots to prepare for lift off, get the bombers out there to try and knock off their shields with proton torpedoes." With a simple, "Yes sir!" the order was spread throughout the two ships. Within a minute, tie-fighters and tie-bombers began their approach on the enemy craft._ This will be finished in minutes now._ He thought to himself.

Upon the launch of the fighters and bomber, the cruisers opened their hangers. Moments later a mix of Seraphs and Banshees swarmed out to engage them. Fireballs erupted around the CCS-class Battlercruisers as Imperial and Covenant craft scored hits. As the battle raged, the last systems on the cruisers where finally brought back online, and several large blue plasma balls where launched from the ships. After traveling several moments, the plasma torpedoes got a lock on the heat signature of the star destroyers, and altered their trajectory to hit them. Green lines began to launch up from the surface of the ships in attempts to stop the torpedoes, but it was to no avail. In moments, six torpedoes smashed into Brandon's ship, while seven hit the other. The shields managed to survive the first two, before completely collapsing on themselves from the energy discharge. While Brandon's ship survived the impacts, the other was not as lucky as one torpedo impacted the reactor core causing entire ship to go up in a ball of fire.

"Status report!" Brandon cried out as his ship barely survived the last barrage. "The shield generators have imploded. There are hull breaches on multiple decks, and the core is going critical." called out one of the few surviving officers. _This isn't looking too good. There is no way we can survive another wave of rounds like that._ He began to think as he picked himself up, panic starting to form. "Are the turbo-laser batteries still operational?" The response he received was not the one he wanted, "No sir, they've been blown right off the hull. Only some point defenses remain." _There has to be some way to turn this around. But how?_ The admiral thought as he contemplated his next move. His thoughts where cut short though by a blue glow. Looking to the one remaining window he got a glimpse of a ball of plasma, before it impacted the bridge.

Cutter was impressed to say the least, those ships survived longer than any UNSC vessel could under sustained fire like that. But now all that remained of those ships where debris fields and some dimming fireballs. Cutter looked at the scene of battle a few more minutes before something occurred to him. "Serina, where did that corvette go?" Cutter asked as he turned to the holo-terminal. "It left shortly after powering back up, and is currently in orbit. It seems it is going to engage a base located on the surface." she responded, as she appeared on the terminal. _Hmmm a base?_ "Serina, get me a ground team over there. I need to know what's going on ground side." "Right away" With that, she went to do the tasks given to her. Moments later a Pelican left the _Spirit of Fire_'s hangar headed for the surface of Felucia.

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Chaos. That was the only way Zeroff could describe the base right now. Several minutes ago he watched the holo-projector as Brandon engaged the ships in orbit, only to let the smaller one through to the surface. In minutes both the Star Destroyers where debris fields and the smaller craft was above the planet's surface. All around him the command room was a buzz of action, as everyone prepared for the land invasion. Several times they had tried to comm out of system, but the ships in orbit are jamming them. He watched the holo-projector as the unknown craft entered lower atmosphere. Suddenly several flashes appeared under the ship, and several fireballs began to fall toward the base. "Are the turbo-laser towers online yet?" he called out to the officer at a nearby station. "No sir. It will still be several more minutes." Cursing his luck, Zeroff looked out the window. As he watched the fireballs come crashing into the base.

An Imperial stormtrooper squadron that found themselves near the impact of one of the fireballs quickly scrambled behind cover. One of the troopers peeked over his cover to steal a glance, only to find a pod where the smoke had been. After a couple moments, several soft pops sounded from the pod, before half of it blew off. The inside revealed a tall alien, in obvious combat armor. The alien grabbed a long purple rifle with a gray barrel and pink crystals sticking out of it. The alien leveled its gun at the trooper before firing off several of the crystals. Before the trooper could duck back behind cover, three of the crystals embedded into his armor, while several others connected to the ground near him. The crystals began to glow, before exploding violently. With three troopers already down, the rest of the squad opened fire on the lone alien who had taken cover behind his pod. Throughout the base multiple similar firefights broke out.

The drop teams did their job, as multiple squads of stormtroopers began to maneuver to counter. As the drop teams continued their distraction, the corvette began unloading the main force in the jungles near the base. As the forces unloaded, the first fire team moved forward. The fire team had two Wraiths and 4 squads of infantry. Coming out of the jungle, the Wraiths began to open fire on the Imperial base's walls. At first they were met with no resistance, but as the Imperials realized what was happening, multiple rockets began to fly at the Wraiths, and E-web turrets began to open fire. Soon more Covenant forces began to reinforce the fire team, and E-web emplacements across the wall began to get taken out one by one.

Zeroff looked to the display once more. He was not happy, his forces where completely outnumbered by this unknown force, and none of their equipment was on record. He couldn't get out a distress signal, or even try to escape. Two of his star destroyers were undergoing repairs, and the third was in need of resupplying. He watched as the North wall turned into a massive fire fight, smoke and fire coming off of it. As the fight went on, several of the unknown's tanks where smoking husks after getting hit by rockets. _We're at least holding them off. If only I got get ahold of one of the other bases._ "Commander, unknown battleships are entering the atmosphere now. Also, the one that has been landing troops is moving this way" called out an officer bringing Zeroff back to reality. "Get all turbo-laser towers firing at that thing."

The corvette slowly hovered its way over the jungle. Ahead of it smoke clouded the sky and plasma flew back and forth, as the covenant sieged the base. The corvette charged up its main batteries, and once it entered range began to open fire on the Imperial base. Under the first barrage a chunk of the wall caved in, providing a path into the base for the rest of the forces. Turning its batteries to other targets the corvette opened fire again. Several banshees flew past to support the land forces, and bombard the Imperials. Several AT-STs fell over after being impacted by their fuel rod bursts, while stormtroopers dived for cover as they began to strafe the wall with plasma rounds. But it was only after a direct hit from the corvette, that the comms building went up in flames. Moments later green turbo-laser fire began to lance up at the corvette. Within moments chunks of armor and metal began to get blasted off the corvette, and blue purple fires sprung up across the hull.

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Thomas was lying on his stomach, viewing the battle from the jungles through the scope of his sniper rifle. He and his team where dropped off just moments ago to investigate the base. The covenant had just broken through the wall, but for a cost: several Wraiths and a Locust sat flaming outside the wall, along with a lot of dead bodies. Though it seemed the base wasn't fairing any better, as several buildings where currently on fire and the covenant where pouring in. He turned his attention to the corvette that was trying to retreat, just in time to see it explode in the middle. As the fireball resided, the chunks began to fall the ground. _"You seen that right?"_ came a voice over Thomas's radio. He chuckled a bit before he responded, "Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss something like that." _Typical James_, he thought, _always rooting for a good explosion._ _"So what's the plan? How are we supposed to investigate the base with this going on?"_ James asked. _Hmm... Good question._ Thomas thought to himself. Cutter wanted some form of info, and so far all they could tell was this: They were in some unknown location, and the covenant don't like the locals. But this was basically common knowledge. As he thought about the next step of action, a loud roar began to come from the sky, as the ground began to shake. Scanning the sky, Thomas watched as one of the three CCS-Battlecruisers flew over the Imperial base. "I'll have to get back to you on that one." Thomas replied as the cruiser moved in.

Zeroff braced himself against the wall of the room as the entire building began to shake violently. He tried to call out to the officers to figure out what was happening, but his voice was drowned out by the roar. Looking to the projector instead, he saw one of the ships that had been in orbit flying straight at the base, turbo-laser fire being absorbed by the shields. Looking out the window, the cruiser flew right overhead. As he watched, something dropped out of the bottom creating a thick cloud of smoke and dust where it hit the ground.

Inside of the smoke, a large object stood up. The stormtroopers in the area quickly changed focus to it, AT-ST preparing to open fire. After a couple moments, a green light shone out of the smoke, before a beam of green plasma flew out to meet an AT-ST. The beam swept to the side taking out four AT-STs and part of a wall. The imperials began to open fire as the Scarab walked moved out of the smoke. Above it the cruiser began to bombard the base, taking out turbo-laser towers left and right. As the scarab turned a corner, an AT-AT farther down the path opened fire. Dual red energy projectiles smashed into the side of the scarab, knocking it over and breaking of several pieces of armor. As the crew dived for cover, the scarab let out a high pitch screech of pain. Quickly standing back up, the scarab turned and fired a single burst at the AT-AT, which burned straight through its head, rendering it useless.

Zeroff stood up and walked back to the projector. Things were not good, the unknowns where everywhere. Most of the base's defense force was gone, and there was a hostile walker roaming around. With a sigh, he finally admitted, this base was lost. As he watched the walker approach the command building, he heard firing outside the door. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing, some grabbing pistols from their holsters. Zeroff looked at the door. The blaster fire outside stopped as two explosions sounded. Everything was silent for what felt like several minutes, but in reality was only a couple seconds, before thudding footsteps sounded from behind the door. Those with pistols took up firing positions. The four stormtroopers in the room took up a defensive stance in front of the door. _Idiots,_ Zeroff thought as he hid behind the projector. Moments later dents started the form in the blast door, as whoever was on the other side began to pound their way in.

Ralum 'Kasamee stood behind the two Mgalekgolo brothers as they smashed away at the door with their shields. He was here to break in, and discover whatever information he could. Really he couldn't care what anyone higher up in the command said, he knew these people where not the humans they had been facing before. Everything they used had been plasma based, not one projectile weapon. Behind him stood his squad of four other spec-ops Sangheli, all of them in position and ready for when the door fell. Grabbing his plasma repeater, Ralum turned toward the door once more, as holes began to form. The Mgalekgolo backed up and charged their assault cannons.

Zeroff peeked out from behind the projector as the banging stopped. The blast door was holding, but was in a sad state. There were several holes dotting the door. Suddenly a noise began to come from the other side, before two green flashes came through the hole. He could smell the metal beginning to burn. He couldn't help but scream, "Get out of there you idiots!", getting troopers to start to move to the side. After a minute's pause, two more blasts hit, knocking the door off the wall and into a trooper who didn't move in time. Quickly the remaining troopers and officers began to fire into the smoke as two large creature moved forward. They stood at roughly eight feet tall, ducking as they entered the door. Blue armor, with four spines sticking out of the back covered them, as they carried a large brown gray shield in one hand, and a large cannon in the other. They moved forward, the shields blocking the blaster fire without issues. The two giants didn't fire upon entering the room, but rather setup in a barrier. Zeroff realized why shortly afterward as five of the reptilian creatures stormed forward, killing the remaining troopers. Four of the beings wore a dark red armor, while the fifth and obvious leader wore black. Zeroff stood up as officers where shot left and right, ready to surrender. Only it seemed they had other ideas, as the one in black fired several plasma balls at him without second thought. Zeroff fell over in pain, as his chest burned before blackness consumed his vision.

Satisfied as the last of the Imperial officers fell to the ground, Ralum walked to the nearby consol. After attempting to access it for several moments, he couldn't open anything. Looking around, he seen the rest of his squad had the same issue. Frustrated Ralum called into his comm-link "The base's command center has been taken, though it appears we will need a Huragok to access anything."

It only took a few minutes before a tech team had arrived with a Huragok and the biological floating supercomputer easily made it's way into the information network, gaining a complete galaxy map. Looking over the map, Ralum was a bit worried. There was nothing familiar on the map. Not one planet he could identify. And according to this, these humans, the Empire as they called themselves, ruled over all the others here. With the data collected, Ralum and his squad left the room escorting the tech crew. They boarded the Spirit waiting for them outside, which took them up to the CCS-battle-cruiser.

Thomas denied any possibility of getting in that base. The Covenant had complete control of it. Sighing, he was about to move to another location to see if he could find a different way in, when one of his squad-mates began to talk on the radio._ "Hey, I think I spotted something moving in the corvette wreckage to the north of the base. Anyone got a better angle to check it out?"_ Wondering what he found, Thomas looked through his scope to survey the wreckage. He was about to dismiss it as another one of Rico's false claims when he seen something move. Zooming in on it, he seen what he had hadn't seen since the _Spirit of Fire_ was at the Forerunner shield world. He had hoped it'd be his only encounter. Quickly activating his comm-link, Thomas called out to his squad, "Rico, found your moving object. Everyone fall back to the Pelican on the double!"_ "What's wrong? What ya find?"_ Picking up his gear and beginning to run back to the Pelican, Thomas responded, "It's the Flood."

Ralum waited in the hanger of the CCS-Battlecruiser _Prophet's Glory_. After boarding, the tech team went to mean Valus 'Ontomee, the ship master, while he and his squad where dismissed from the group. He watched out the energy door as Spirits began to bring troops and supplies back inside the ship. The base had been captured, and everything useful scavenged. It was slow, a lot of the crew from the corvette, he couldn't remember what its name was, had to be brought on board. He helped when he was needed to offload supply crates, or the injured, but after a half hour of this he felt the ship lurch. Confused he looked back out the shield door._ What is going on? There's still people down there, why are we leaving?_ Ralum wondered as he began to make his way to the bridge. It only took several minutes to make it, and upon entering he immediately approached Valus. "Why are we leaving, we haven't brought the corvette's survivors on board yet." Ralum questioned as he walked up to Valus. Turning to face the questioner, Valus stated "We are leaving now because we have a star map of the area, and have received communication of the main fleet's position. The survivors of the_ Silence of Consent_ can, and will wait. Once we have regrouped we will return for them." Ralum knew they wouldn't survive till they returned, if they returned. The people here would send reinforcements, and would destroy them. "Shipmaster, with due respect, they won't survive that long. If we don't bring them onboard now, they won't be around later." Ralum could tell that Valus was getting angry with him, very quickly. "I know what I am doing Ralum, which is why I am in command of this vessel, and not you." This stung Ralum, but he hid it well. "So, why do you question my judgment? Are you a Heretic?" Valus questioned, as several guards visibly tensed, grabbing their rifles to be prepared to deal with a Heretic. Ralum simply replied, "No, I am not a heretic, I uphold the covenant with my life. I was only concerned for the troops below." With that he turned and left the room, thinking to himself, _While I serve the Covenant, perhaps you are the Heretic_. Watching the door shut, Valus allowed a smug look to come across his face, before returning to his tasks.

Cutter was beginning to get concerned. Thomas had yet to report back with any findings. They had landed nearly a half-hour ago, and were meant to report in every twenty minutes. He watched the view-port as Serina appeared. "Cutter, Thomas is contacting us, and the salvage crew has returned from the wreckage." Cutter turned to face Serina, "Patch them through." As Serina blinked out, Thomas was connected. _"Captain Cutter? Do you read?"_ came Thomas's voice. "Read ya loud and clear there Thomas, what you find?" Cutter replied. _"Not Much, Covies took the base before we could do anything. I don't suggest farther ground operations though. The base brought down the corvette, and it seems it had the flood onboard. It's currently spreading through the dense jungles at a rapid rate."_ Great, Cutter thought, just what we need. Now how are we going to figure out whats going on? He had to deal with the Flood once, he knew what they could do, and there was no way he was going to send men to certain doom just for info. But as if on cue, Serina spoke up, "In may not be all bad, the salvage crew collected information from the ship's wreckage. One thing they found was a star-map, but nothing on it matches anything in the databases." "Hmm, well we need to find a spot to regroup, and figure things out. Here isn't the best, as more forces are bound to show up soon. Any locations you can find Serina?" Cutter asked. After a moment of pause, he got a response, "I have found an ice world in the records that not many people visit. Coordinates are locked in the across the fleet. Just give the word." Cutter looked at the display. As soon as Thomas's team's Pelican landed, he gave the order, "All ships jump to slip-space." Multiple black hole like ruptures opened as the UNSC fleet jumped. Moments later the covenant ships entered space and jumped as well.

After several minutes of peace, five Star Destroyers entered the system. On the bridge of the lead ship the admiral looked to his display. "What happened here?" he asked as he looked over the rubble of two Star Destroyers in orbit, and the ruins of three bases on the surface.

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**Well there is chapter two for ya. Don't forget to review.**


	3. Chapter 3 -Shadow of Salvation

**Here is chapter 3, hope I didn't take too long. As always, I don't own Star Wars or Halo. Enjoy and review!**

**Also, the first part (before the first line break) is the covenant's POV for chapter 1. Just saying to clear up any confusion before it happens.**

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**9****th**** Age of Reclamation**

Tatos 'Sarhosee stood on the bridge of _Rising Reverence. _Before him a display screen showed the forerunner station he was tasked with investigating. He has been sitting here overseeing the operation for well over an hour. Currently his ship, the supercarrier leading the fleet _Shadow of Salvation_, sat beside the station. This allowed spirits and the few phantoms they had, to transfer to the station and back. The station was the first of its kind for the Covenant to find, and emitted a strange energy field around it. A field his engineering crew didn't like.

Ever since the fleet entered the field most major systems started to fail. They were running with barely any power, shields where offline, and all their weapons where down. Even comms where getting scrambled, though it seemed if the ships where close enough, they had a 80% success rate with their communications. It also had radar messed up, making him have to resort to sending out groups of ships to patrol. Tatos doubted anyone would attempt to attack them, as most humans would run at the sight of a supercarrier, but he was going to be prepared none the less. Currently on the display in the center of the bridge where the reports coming in from the engineering crews. It wasn't looking good. Not only where they unable to figure out what the field was, they couldn't power up the station fully. The only progress they had made was making it to the main control room, and figuring out its possible purpose. They believe it is a form of mass transit.

Tatos sighed; he truly hated these sorts of missions. He'd prefer to be on the main fronts, destroying the humans to fulfill the will of the gods. But the Prophets believed this structure was of more importance, and who was he to disobey the Prophets. Watching reports wasn't his idea of fun. As Tatos began to read the newest report, the bridge's lights dimmed and the screen flickered. When the screen rebooted, it was now displaying a report on the energy readings of the station. Tatos watched as the levels rose higher and higher, before looking to the forward viewing screen. Across the station lights began to turn on. Opening a link to the lead engineer team, Tatos asked, "What is the station doing?" After a few minutes he heard a Sangheli respond, _"We aren't sure, it appears the station has begun an auto reboot, but for what reason, I can't be certain. What I do know, is that it wasn't anything we did." _Walking to another display Tatos notice something wasn't right. Where patrol group C-2 should be was nothing but empty space. "Where is patrol C-2?" Tatos called to the other crew members. After a few minutes of work, one finally responded, "We' can't hail them Fleet-master." "Get me a closeup on their sector then." growled Tatos. After a second or two, another screen flickered to life displaying where the ships should be. After studying the image for a few seconds, Tatos knew what happened. "Humans..." he muttered under his breath.

Tatos quickly thought over what he could do. _We have a supercarrier with a fleet of forty, no thirty-seven, ships but we are without weapons or shields. We can't win a fight like this. we could run. But to where?_ Tatos wondered as the ten human warships quickly approached. _They quickly approach, and with the engines acting up we can't outrun them. _Tatos looked to the display again, and remembered the engineer's claims._ If this is indeed a object for mass transit, then we might just have a way out._ His mind was made up for him as he looked back at the display. Forming above the station was a slipspace rupture. Opening the comm once more Tatos spoke to the engineer, "Gather your crew and return to the _Rising Reverence_." _"What is the issue, Fleet-master?"_ asked the engineer. "The humans are attacking." growled Tatos. After a few seconds of silence the engineer replied, _"We are on are way."_ after a bit of motion Tatos heard the engineer mumble to himself, _"It never fails, anytime their tech starts working_, its cause a human has shown up.""Have the Rising Reverence align for a jump through the rupture." Tatos ordered as he moved toward his chair. Sitting down, he brought up a display. The human fleet was approaching quickly, while his fleet where beginning to prepare to jump. Several Spirits where in the middle of returning to the fleet. Suddenly human ships began firing their main batteries, taking out a corvette. "Full power to the engines." Tatos simply said. The bridge's lights dimmed out and several displays turned off as the power was rerouted. Though the darkness didn't last long as lightning coming from the Forerunner station surrounded his ship, overwhelming the cameras linked to the displays. Before Tatos could react, the ship lurched forward only to come to a sudden halt moments later. "Have we been hit?" he exclaimed as the crew picked themselves off the floor. "I don't believe so." several of the displays began to turn back on, so Tatos looked to one to try and figure out what happened.

He could see a station, but he knew it wasn't the same one as his fleet had been moved. _So they are for transit, but now where are we? _Tatos wondered, as where had previously been empty space, were now hundreds of black holes.

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Admiral Dakan watched the black holes as his Star Destroyer floated through the Maw. Currently he was heading to a station that was detected to have been booting itself up, though no one knows why. For as long as history could remember the station never showed signs of booting up before. So now him, and four other star ships, where being tasked with investigating. Around the bridge his crew was working away, keeping the fleet on course without getting trapped in one of the black hole's gravity wells, and scanning for other ships. Though he doubted anyone would try to attack the Imperial research center here. Really the only reason he was here was to keep the researchers from spreading info to the Rebellion, not defend them. The black holes did a good enough job at that. Sighing from boredom that came with the twenty minute trip right after a twenty-five minute preparation period and briefing, Dakan resorted to pacing around the bridge.

On his fifth lap, he noticed one of the comms officers had an odd look on his face. "Is there an issue officer?" he asked as he stood behind him. The officer turned around in his chair and looked up at Dakan before responding, "Its Felucia sir, just got a communication from the resupply fleet, it's been attacked with three whole bases destroyed, and the defense fleet knocked out" Dakan was taken back a bit by the news, the Rebellion wasn't known for hitting planets like this. Something wasn't right. As he and most of the crew processed the info, another officer spoke up, "Admiral, the station is messing with radar, but I'm seeing at least two unknown star craft near it. As Dakan turned to the forward window, he was met with a sight that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Sitting in front of the station was a starship many times larger than his Star Destroyer. Surrounding it where multiple smaller ships of similar design. "What is it?" Dakan stuttered as he looked to an officer for answers. The officer simply shrugged saying, "Not sure, nothing matches in the databanks." _Great, first a station powers up for unknown reason, and now we got a fleet of unknown ships. And the lead one is the biggest ship I've ever seen. What's next?" _Dakan wondered. As if to answer his question, three blackholes formed in space, spitting out a ship of similar design each. The ships sat there as the fleet moved slowly away from the station to meet them. "We're going to need reinforcements" Dakan told the comms officer who went to work radioing for backup.

It was silent on the bridge as the Imperial fleet approached the unknown ships until one of the officers decided to speak up. "Admiral, we are about to pass into the unknown field." Dakan turned to the officer, "What is the field?" he asked curiously. The officer looked at several displays before responding, "Not 100% sure, but from these readings, it seems to be creating an artificial gravity well." Weighing his options, the admiral decided to proceed forward. "Continue on path, but keep me updated on what the field is doing." "Yes admiral." sighing, Dakan moved back to the middle of the bridge. He didn't like how things where going, something in the back of his mind told him to run now while he still could.

* * *

Tatos sat in his chair, after exiting the rupture he had discovered they were in an unknown location and was missing four ships. Hoping to get some form of answers he ordered their location to be broadcasted on one of their secure channels through slipspace.

To an extent, it worked. Three of the missing ships had just arrived at his position, and had a star-map. This was some news, but the bigger news was that the ships had engaged humans using Forerunner tech. It disgusted him to no end, but now he knew at least somewhat to expect. Having finished examining the star-map, he stood up and walked to the center of the bridge. The display screen showed what was happening outside, the fleet moving to the edge of the field and the blackholes surrounding the place. _The Forerunner sure do know how to hide a place. _He thought to himself. As the ships slowly drifted along, Tatos realized they were being followed by five ships behind them.

"Entering field in 5... 4... 3... 2... Entered!" and officer yelled. Suddenly the bridge lights dimmed, and several displays shut off. "Status report! What happened?" exclaimed Dakan as he quickly moved to one of the working displays. "The field is draining a portion of our energy supplies. Life supports are still stable, engines are working at 50%, and we got one turbo-laser battery working, though not sure how long that will last" the officer replied. Great, he thought, just my luck. Hmm, might as well as keep going if I retreat now, they'll label me a traitor of the Empire. Looks like I might die either way. "Keep moving forward, reroute power to engines, get us through he as quickly as we can." he sighed.

Slowly but surely the Imperial ships began to catch up to the Covenant. "Unknown star-craft are in-range of turbo-lasers Admiral!" "Good, prepare turbo-lasers to fire." As the officers went to work, he felt the ship slow down as power was moved from engines to the lasers. As he watched, the massive ship's engines stopped flickering, and lights across the thing came on. "What's going on?" Dakan asked worriedly. "It appears the field was affecting them the same way it affected us. They just exited... Wait, they're firing!" Dakan watched as millions of blue bolts flew toward them from the other fleet, only to dissipate upon entering the field. One of the Victory-class Star destroyers attempted to return fire, only for the turbo-lasers to suffer the same fate. _As long as we're in the field we're safe... Good, some actual luck for a change._ Dakan thought as both fleets silently watched each other.

Tatos growled as he watched the field swallow up his first barrage. He had hoped for this to be over with quickly. After a moment of thought, he decided to try and lure the ships out, and ordered the fleet to keep moving. After the hesitation, it worked and the other ships proceeded in follow his fleet. "Tell me when they leave the field." Tatos ordered as he looked to an Unggoy on the bridge. After five minutes the Unggoy responded, "They have left!" "Good, good. All ships open fire!" Tatos watched with a grin as the other ships got pound by the first barrage.

As soon as his ships Dakan had ordered full power to shields. Thankfully it worked. Sort of. Dakan stood back up and checked the bridge. Several officers lay on the floor dead, or injured. One viewport had the blast door shut, sparks where flying everywhere and the annoying alarm was blaring in the background. Though the bridge still fared better than the rest of the ship. Or lack of said ship. The main portion of the Star Destroyer was in ruins, breaches on all decks with only the bridge still retaining an atmosphere. Around him the rest of the fleet was nothing but debris. He was helpless as he watched the other fleet jump into their black holes, and the dimming light as it shut behind them.

_What sort of monsters are these things? _Dakan quietly wondered before checking on the rest of the bridge crew.

* * *

After waiting around on the bridge for at least a half an hour, someone finally showed up to rescue him. Now Dakan was being escorted to the debriefing room. After about ten minutes of telling the officer there all he knew he was finally allowed to walk about the ship. It'd be another twenty minutes before they reached the research station. Deciding to discover who had been sent to save him, Dakan boarded the turbo-lift to the bridge. Upon the doors opening, he was greeted by the scene of the bridge in chaos. He soon figured out why, as sitting in front of the ship was the ruins of the research facility, several defense ships and one of the unknown starships. The unknown was disabled, the whole back end blown off.

Completely forgetting why he was in the bridge in the first place, Dakan walked forward to try and help how he could. The comms where frantic as everyone tried to figure out what happened. The chaos was only added to as one of the research station's reactors blew, and even more ships started arriving. Slowly the panic subsided, and Dakan gave a sigh. _At least we knocked out one of their ships, and hopefully damaged a few others._

Transports and tie-fighters flew all over the place as they searched for survivors and brought them back to the fifteen Star Destroyers of various classes surrounding the wreckage. A single ship began to make its way away from the rest in order to jump to hyperspace, having been the one chosen to transport the injured found already. Within a half an hour, another five support ships arrived to provide aid, and news of both the station and Felucia had spread to every inch of Imperial command. Including a currently furious Emperor. A planet being attacked, he could deal with. The station being blown up, no problem, it could easily be replaced. A planet being assaulted with the fleet being destroyed, and three bases lost with an apparent unknown parasite running lose with the station being destroyed within hours of each other from the same unknown faction is not okay for him.

Until now the rebellion had been nothing more than a thorn in the side of the empire, uprisings quickly struck down, rarely any damage actually done. But this, this new faction had done what the Rebellion could only hope to do, within their first moments of contact with the Empire. This was something that he would need to deal with quickly, and harshly. The only problem was that he didn't know where the faction retreated too. But he at least knew one thing; they had appeared after one of the ancient stations of the Maw reactivated. This was why he currently had one of the Empire's larger fleets repositioning there, and research vessels sent to investigate. He would find and crush these beings, and learn all their secrets.

Sidious looked out of the bridge of the Imperial Star Destroyer II that he was currently occupying. He studied the odd structure wondering what it did. He was finally broken from his thoughts by the sound of the Admiral's footsteps approaching. "My Lord, we have discovered information on the structure. It would appear it is used for transporting vessels to another location. We have a Victory ready to use it, and the scientists believe they can activate it now that it's been rebooted. We're just awaiting your orders." said the Admiral. Sidious processed the information before responding, "Good, proceed with activating it and send the ship through, return once you know what happens." "Yes my lord." The Admiral said, before turning to go about his task and relay commands.

The station's lights began to glow brighter before a black hole like rupture formed above it. The Victory-class Star Destroyer began to approach the station, lightning surrounding it before it was flung into the rupture. Minutes pasted before the Admiral returned to Sidious. "The _Enforcer_ has successfully made it through, and has begun to report back, though they are unsure of where they are, they have sent a map of the immediate area." "Show me" Sidious stated as he turned to the admiral. "Right away my lord" The admiral walked to the holo terminal and brought the map up. As Sidious studied the map, the force had already supplied an answer for where they were. "Admiral, it would appear as though the _Enforcer_ is no longer in our galaxy."

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**Tell me what you thought, next chapter we'll be back with the UNSC.**


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